DroneZ

I was at a party last night when I caught a glimpse of it behind a couch and some boxes. To fit it into the cluttered office, he had to actually split the cabinet in half, wedging the back glass in one direction while the main screen peeked out just enough to offer a view of the controls and the artwork. Discs of Tron was within reach, but not playable. It was probably rude to be caressing someone else's display, but I couldn't help myself, not when there was an almost-playable DoT in the room.

I'm not alone in this. In fact, there are many of us out there that subscribe to the religion, some so much so that they've managed to start an entire company around the seeds that Discs of Tron has planted. Zetha gameZ is one of those curious companies, but you'll forgive any submissions to geekdom the minute you notice the detail and depth of their first offering, DroneZ, a mixture of DoT, first-person-shooters, and console style action. Utilizing the new GeForce 3 chipset, the game blew audiences away at a recent demonstration, and has the gaming world ready for a more intimate look at the title.

DroneZ isn't a new project for Zetha, but it's certainly changed a lot since initial screens and information were shown. It's been about two years, and in that time it's morphed from something exciting, to something downright spectacular. A lot of that has to do with the new chipset that the team has been working closely with for the GeForce announcement. "With previous graphics boards we were not able to use hardware T&L because our 3D routines are non-standard, especially for the illumination system, which can not be implemented in hardware with the previous technologies," said Development Lead Giovanni Caturano. "With the GeForce 3, we could finally 'teach' the hardware our custom way of doing things and run it straight onto the GPU." Just take a look at the difference below:

According to Caturano, part of the delay was spent on figuring out how much of a story to integrate into the game itself, but obviously boosting the graphics and poly counts played a large part in the delay. Not that we're sad. DroneZ has leapt from a solid sleeper to one of the top spots on the hot list due to the recent demonstration, and now there are a lot of ears more than ready to hear the details about how Zetha is going to bring old-school gameplay back to the PC. Anyone who's read our reviews of Pong and the new Pac-Man know just how much we try to support re-igniting old trigger games, and DroneZ is an attempt to add modern depth while still keeping that finger-popping speed that put us all in this addiction in the first place. For Caturano, the inspiration for DroneZ isn't just DoT, but everything from Pong and R-Type to Mario Bros and Asteroids, taking elements of all of those classics while putting you in completely new situations.

Original

New and improved

At first glance, DroneZ come across as a futuristic sports game, but the developers will be quick to tell you that it's not a sports title. In fact it's not even match-based, despite the look of the screens and levels. The action takes place in "V-Space," a virtual world that you'll have to escape from... sort of like another movie we remember from the 80's. Despite the obvious references to Benji: The Hunted, the game promises to loop everything into it's own original storyline, while keeping the gameplay moving quickly. Most of the action takes place on floating platforms, each of which has its own gravity field. Because the battles take place on pads, it means that one skirmish may have you standing right side up, while others may have you at odd angles, or even hurtling through environments while trying to defeat other Drones. You'll have to rebound around shields, deal with at least 30 different Drone types, each with a different style of play, and learn the fine art of platform leaping if you're going to get deeper inside of world V-Space. Rebounding skill is a must for survival, like in DoT, but you'll also get access to a variety of new weapons and skill sets for your character, such as bullets that can pass through objects, or explosive charges that leave a larger dent on your opponents -- something DoT never gave you the opportunity to play with. As you progress through the game, your character will be able to use new kinds of shields and weapons by "ripping" the code for them, and implanting them into their software. You can expect a handful of different starting characters to choose from, each one with the ability to customize their weaponry and skills.

On top of the battles, you'll also have full freedom of movement to explore large environments, battle insectoids, and have your fill of platform action as well. The pads will keep you in standard battles, but you'll also have the opportunity to run around in third-person and do some foot shuffling on your own as well. Of course, an arcade game wouldn't be the same without bosses, and DroneZ is no different. Take a look at the screens, and you'll be happy that big fat ugly things will be around to dodge and kill.

The control scheme will be the standard mouse/keyboard interface, with two buttons for firing and for your shields. Things are kept simple because simple's the name of the game with DroneZ. Despite the graphic punch, console fans and PC gamers alike will be able to hop in and get running in a matter of seconds. Of course, since this was originally slated for the Dreamcast as well, there are still plans for a console version of the game, with the Xbox being the most appealing, according to Caturano. With the Xbox sporting the next iteration of the GeForce card, we can look forward to a console version that will look as beautiful as the PC counterpart, as long as the team finds ways to fit all of that glorious texture memory onto the smaller space. As for those of you that don't or won't own the upcoming GeForce 3 card, Caturano promises that the engine is fully scaleable. "The nice thing is that if you have a high-spec machine, the game looks jaw-dropping, if you have a lower-end system, it just looks great," said Caturano. So while you might not get the full set of graphic features, you'll still have something that will undoubtedly show off the limits of your system.

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